yoga and health

Due to popular demand, we are now offering a FOUR NIGHT, FIVE DAY retreat high in the Gold Coast Hinterland at the beautiful and quite magical Theosophical Society Education and Retreat Centre in Springbrook from Thursday 4^th April until Monday 8^th April 2024.

For days now the old Dragon song (vale Marc Hunter) “Take me to the April Sun in Cuba” has been playing non-stop in my head, with a few words changed to take us all to the April Retreat in Springbrook! Who wants to come?! Me! (Dragon will not be joining us!)

Are you desperate for some time out from real life to focus on your writing? Whether you’re just getting started or working on book ten, this retreat is all about YOU and YOUR WRITING PROJECT. Time for you to write. Time for you to relax and just think. Time to daydream, lie on a blanket in the sun and gaze up into the tall trees imagining the next steps of your book, or your life.

Sound like just what the doctor ordered? I know I’m really looking forward to some time out from all the madness and frantic busyness, to focus solely on my new book (just finished the first draft :)). Even better, doing so in a group of women writers all doing the same thing!

I left the Retreat with inspiration for my writing, as well as goals with a clear and achievable action plan. And the best part is I now have the support of 16 new writing buddies!

COURTNEY MASTERS – retreat participant

This retreat is all about WRITING TIME.

We have an initial workshop to help clarify goals for the retreat, making realistic plans about what we’d like to achieve, connecting with others and figuring out which method works best for you. During the days we’ll run a supervised writing room with timed “Pomodoro” style sessions, writing in twenty-minute bursts, followed by five minutes to rest, chat and grab a cup of tea or coffee and some of Gay’s delicious home-baked treats (GF options always available). Or, if you’re a solo writer like me, then every room has its own desk, or you can find a spot in the beautiful gardens and rest your back against one of the giant gums or wander off to the waterfall and write in blissful solitude in nature.

Edwina Shaw’s Writers Retreat at Springbrook was sensational. Working with other experienced writers and learning new ways of doing things as well as new ways to think, is always mind expanding. Then there were the deep dive conversations with other writers and the sacred walk to the waterfall. It was an extraordinary way to learn and grow.

VICKI BENNETT – repeat retreater

We’ll have Q & A sessions after lunch every day where you can ask as many craft-related questions as you like, and every evening we’ll have guided deep breathing and relaxation to help our busy writers’ minds to slow down and relax. After a delicious dinner you’ll have the chance to share your writing with the group. We’ll finish off the retreat with a final workshop, checking on progress and plotting our way forward, setting goals and making plans for our projects, and ourselves, moving forward.

To be held in a space of such love and respect, through both solitude and interacting with other amazing women, was a real blessing. I found Edwina to be enlightening, welcoming and an amazing source of inspiration and knowledge regarding all aspects of writing, including publishing. I came away knowing that I truly have potential and feeling very excited about my writing journey. I want to share my gift with the world, and now I feel like I can. Wow.

KYLIE DEAN – retreat participant

These retreats do more than just get you writing, they provide much needed time out from the world to reassess what you want from your life and nurture your creative self, so that by the time you return to the big smoke, you’ll be feeling refreshed, renewed and ready to shine!

Come along and you will be treated to a memorable, supportive and nurturing space with laughter and creativity aplenty. These retreats offer the perfect balance of relaxing and writing. From the collective energies of the group as a whole to the care-filled little touches that Ed brings, your inner-goddess and writing muse will thank you! A warning though… once you’ve gone on one, you’ll want to come back again and again! Spoken by a true repeat retreater!

BIANCA MILLROY – repeat retreater

PRICE INCLUDES:

4 nights comfortable single accommodation with bathrooms shared between two.

ALL MEALS – healthy homemade organic vegetarian meals, breakfasts, lunches and dinners, plus morning and afternoon teas. (All sensitivities catered for on request)

2 Writing workshops

3 Guided breathing and deep relaxation sessions

4 Q & A sessions

A supervised Pomodoro room to keep you on track,

As much solitary writing time as you like!

Plus: a chance to share your stories on readings nights.

Transport not included.

I have been inspired to work on my writing but also to work on my health. Not only am I motivated but I made so many new friends.

PEG MACLEOD – retreat participant

COST for this special ALL INCLUSIVE 4 NIGHT RETREAT of writing, fun and feasting?

Pay your deposit by February 15 for EARLY BIRD PRICES

UNWAGED/ CONCESSION:

EARLY BIRD $750, Normal $790

WAGED: EARLY BIRD $850, Normal $900

All inclusive!

PAY YOUR DEPOSIT HERE

OR by Direct Deposit PREFERED: CONTACT EDWINA FOR AVAILABILITY AND BANK DETAILS.

If you have more dash than cash but would still LOVE to come, just email Edwina and we’ll work it out.

ALTERNATIVE EXTRAS ALSO AVAILABLE AT EXTRA COST:

One on one sessions with Edwina to give direction or advice on your project.

Body work treatments with the deeply knowledgeable and gifted healer, Monique DeGoey of Reconnect BodyWork.

If you’ve been promising yourself some time out for your writing and would love to connect with like-minded writing women in a stunningly beautiful location, far from the madding crowds, then this is the retreat for you!

Come along and be nurtured and supported by a kind and gentle group of women and leave all your worries behind as you immerse yourself in the beautiful natural environment, lovingly cared for by the Yugambeh people for millennia.

GET ALL THE INFO HERE

If you’re looking for more workshops to guide your writing and to get your head around aspects of teh writing craft, then check out all the other retreats available in 2024! Really looking to escape? Join me and my dear friend, the wise and witty Kerstin Pilz author of Loving my Lying Dying Cheating Husband, in Bali for our Relax and Write Your Journey BLISSFUL BALI RETREAT July 11 – 17 2024.

But first, sing along with me, Take me to the April Retreat in Springbrook, oh ho ho!

Feel free to drop me a line with any questions or to check availability.

Lots of love

Edwina xx

Once again the sun shone for us in Springbrook as our group of wonderful women writers gathered to relax, write, feast and connect at the beautiful Theosophical Society Education and Retreat Centre high above the bustle in the Gold Coast hinterland.

We wrote up a storm and shared our stories, connecting heart to heart, writer to writer, learning from each other and growing in our skills and abilities to get those stories out of our heads and onto the page.

The weather was so beautiful we even had a session outside on a picnic blanket, listening deeply to the stories of the ancestors of this spectacular country, the Yugambeh people, and our own ancestors with their own stories to tell.

Chief cookie, the fabulous Gay Liddington, whose own memoir will be published in 2024 – WATCH THIS SPACE – tempted us all with delicious treats, and what a treat it is to walk into the kitchen at the end of a long day writing to smell a feast ready and waiting. THANK YOU GAY!

This retreat, we saw many repeat retreaters reconnecting and other new friends finding their writing gangs. Writers need other writers. When we are deeply immersed in our own stories, we can’t see our way through what can seem like a tangled forest of words, but other writers can look at our mess from a different angle and clearly see the path through the trees for us.

We laughed and we cried together, wrote, talked and even sang. We relaxed and stretched our bodies with yoga and indulged in healing bodywork treatments by the amazing Monique De Goey of Reconnect Holistic Bodywork.

Each one of us, yours truly included, came away feeling refreshed and renewed, with new ideas for our stories, a clear path ahead and writing companions to cheer us on and pick us back up again if we fall.

As Heidi would say, “I knew the mountains would make her well!”

Here’s what some retreaters had to say.

“A beautiful space of learning, reflection, sharing and mutual honouring of our stories.”

Retreat participant October 2023

“This had been such a wonderful experience for me. I love being in community and experienced wonderful community this weekend. The writing workshops were inspiring, exciting and ignited my creative side again.”

Retreat participant October 2023

“Thank you for all the inspiration, warmth, listening and LOVE.”

Retreat participant October 2023

As is traditional, we finished our retreat with collages – here are some of the beautiful results!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these retreats are only as special as the women who come along. I love how women come together and lift each other up. THANK YOU to all the wonderful women writers who made this retreat such a beautiful experience for us all, me included.

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest person in the world, getting to uplift and inspire others for my job!

Would you love to come along to the next memoir retreat? Dates are already set for next year’s Memoir and Life Writing Retreat – MAKE A NOTE – 18 – 20 OCTOBER 2024. You can book in HERE by paying your deposit. Hurry repeat retreaters are already signing up! Prices have gone up as retreat costs have risen along with everything else. I’ve created a tiered system for the waged and unwaged but if you’re still burning to come, but can’t see your way through to paying that much, DROP ME A LINE and I’ll see how we can help.

And, just quietly, a new JUST WRITE RETREAT of 4 or 5 nights is planned for early April, 2024. More on this soon!

Vietnam Relax and Write Your Journey Retreat is fully booked and we’re all getting super excited, but places are still available for Bali! I cannot wait to get back to the divine Bali EcoStay to swim in our own waterfall and fall asleep every night to the gentle lull of running water. Tempted? Check it all out here – you’ll have the time of your life!!